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 Amber
in the United States
Dark amber could be found in Kansas in the lignite beds along the Smoky
Hill River, Ellsworth County, but the beds are no longer accessible
because of the Kannapolis Reservoir. Less than 50 pounds were found
before the area was flooded. This amber was discovered by George Jelinek
and is referred to as jelinite. Other states in the U.S. in which amber
has been found include:
Alaska:
Amber found in lignite and believed to be derived from ancient swamp
cypress trees.
Arkansas:
More than 900 insects, arachnids and plant inclusions have been isolated
in the amber from lignite beds. This is known as the largest deposit of
amber in North America. It is supposedly found in near Malvern,
geologically in the Claiborne Formation, which is of Eocene age.
(Arkansas amber collection preserved in the Museum of Comparative
Zoology, Harvard University)
California:
Amber is found in Tertiary (Eocene) clay shale, Simi Valley, Ventura
County.
Maryland:
Amber of upper Cretaceous age was found in early part of this century.
Massachusetts: before 1883 a 340 gram (12 oz.) specimen of amber
was found on Nantucket Island in Tertiary greensand and marl formation.
Montana: found in the Hell Creek Formation, Cretaceous age, near
Glendive.
New Jersey: amber was found in marl (fertilizer) pits, Cretaceous
glauconitic sands that are no longer worked. A significant primitive ant
inclusion was found in 1967; this ant provided the link between wasps
and the most primitive known living ants. Hundreds of pounds of amber
have been taken from sites in central New Jersey. Late Cretaceous age
amber preserved a rich variety of insects and plants, from miniature
flowers to a mushroom. Also, amber was found along the New Jersey/New
York border in the Sayreville Clay Member of the Raritan Formation,
which is Late Cretaceous in age and in the Raritan Bay area.
New Mexico: small amounts found in coal. According to Grimaldi
(1996), amber is found in the San Juan Basin, Fruitland Formation, which
is 75 million year old. A definitive botanical origin of this amber is
known because the amber is found embedded in the logs of Taxodiaceae
(sequoia and bald cypress).
North Carolina: Small quantities of Cretaceous amber in lignite
beds and amber or copal specimens have been found in recent years after
storms.
Tennessee: The first known insect discovered in North American
amber was here in 1917, identified as a caddis fly.
Texas: Found in Cretaceous and Tertiary deposits.
Washington: An abandoned coal mine near Issaquah is the location
of amber in the Tiger Mountain Formation (Eocene). Plant fragments,
usually cedar (Cupressaceae), are found embedded in the yellow, orange,
and red amber, but no insects. Some of these finds are housed at the
University of Washington's Burke Museum in Seattle.
Wyoming: Steve Levine, a geologist, found amber in the mid to
late 1970s. It came from the Battle Spring Formation, carbonaceous
un-altered arkose sandstone, Eocene in age. It was a dark colored
nodule, shattered from blasting at Western Nuclear's Seismic Mine at
Jeffrey City, Wyoming. Another Wyoming amber described by
Kosmowska-Ceranowicz, Giertych, and Miller in 2001, was found in Upper
Cretaceous deposits (Cedarite).
Infra red and radiocarbon data. Prace Muzeum Ziemi Nr. 46, 77-80). This
resin, described as reddish-yellow and very brittle, was found embedded
in the Lance Formation, a compact, lime-free grey loam.
Kosmowska-Ceranowicz classified it in the same group as the jelinite
from Kansas, the cedarite group of fossil resins.
Amber Deposits Around the World
Amber is found in various parts of the world. The largest amber deposits
are off the shores of the Baltic Sea and the North Sea. The great
amber-producing country is the promontory of Sambia, now a part of
Russia.
How Amber is Usually Found
Pieces of amber torn from the sea-floor are cast up by the waves, and
collected at ebb-tide. Sometimes the searchers wade into the sea,
furnished with nets at the end of long poles, by means of which they
drag in the sea-weed containing entangled masses of amber; or they
dredge from boats in shallow water and rake up amber from between the
boulders. Divers have been employed to collect amber from the deeper
waters. Systematic dredging on a large scale was at one time carried on
in the Curonian Lagoon by Messrs Stantien and Becker, the great amber
merchants of Königsberg. At the present time extensive mining operations
are conducted in quest of amber. The pit amber was formerly dug in open
works, but is now also worked by underground galleries. The nodules from
the blue earth have to be freed from matrix and divested of their opaque
crust, which can be done in revolving barrels containing sand and water.
The sea-worn amber has lost its crust, but has often acquired a dull
rough surface by rolling in sand.
History of Amber
Amber has a long history since the ancient times. Most
older and previously discovered amber deposits were in
Europe and you will still see today ho widely amber is
used and cherished in Europe. Amber has been traded
since earliest times and was considered a mystic and
religious material. Over the "amber routes" it was
distributed throughout Europe and to the entire known
ancient world... Read
more...
History of Amber Jewelry
The earliest known use of worked amber beads by man was
between 7,000 and 11,000 BC in Denmark and southern
England. Amber beads have been found in Egyptian tombs
dating to 3,400 BC. It has also been found in Mycenaean
(Greece) tombs. By the Bronze Age (3,000 to 1,000 BC),
there was significant trade of the gemstone throughout
the region of the Baltic Sea. As early as 600 BC...
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more...
Historical Amber Trade & Amber Route
The amber trade is ancient. Scientists presume that the trade in amber
started as early as in New Stone Age. Baltic amber beads were found in
3400-2400 BC pharaoh tombs in Tethys pyramid. German archaeologist
Heinrich Schliemann who in 1871-1890 excavated Troy in addition to other
artifacts found amber beads....
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Amber Myths, Lore and Facts
The evidence of amber being a precious substance that
was very much sought after, fought for and cherished
goes back to 3,400 B.C. There have been many lore and
myths about amber and many of them are most prevalent in
Europe today. People believe amber to be...
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Amber in Medicine
History has documented medicinal uses of amber. A lot of
ancient text includes amazing mentions of the positives of amber
treatment. Amber has a unique charm and air of mystery surrounding it.
In nineteenth-century literature we find evidence of amber having been
used as a remedy for virtually all illnesses. The Etruscans prized it as
highly as gold...
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Real vs. Fake Amber
It is important to get to know amber well if you are
seeking one or better yet, depend on a source that is
authentic and reliable. In the middle of the 19th
century, scientists discovered ways to synthesize
natural precious substances. Due to the demand and the
price amber commanded in those days, additional
experiments and efforts to falsify amber picked up
pace...
Read more...
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Amber Deposits in United States
